Tag: holiday crafts

A few more Halloween decor pics are in order, I think. Did I tell you that I LOVE decorating for the holidays? “Why?”, you ask. Just because it makes me happy. I hope that the decorations make you smile too.

The table in the entryway often gets a decorative refresh. It’s a changeling for holidays as well as the different seasons. The photo above is specifically for Halloween, of course, but take a look at the before picture to the left. This was the summer arrangement with artwork from myself (center painting) and abstract landscapes from Claudia McGill. This time, the entryway went from springy-summer to the dark, spooky colors of Halloween. I love it!

I have a few purchased collectibles, but most of our decorations are made by Les or myself. Above are some store-boughts. Aren’t the little pumpkin buckets adorable?The cool devil bunnies are made by my husband Les Gains. He sculpts them of clay, then makes a mold and pours resin into that. Acrylic paint completes the look. I love his work because it is so unusual. My art always turns out “girly” no matter how edgy I try to make it.

Pictured above are more of Les’ mixed media sculptures. He most often starts with his resin creations and builds from there. So cool!…a close-up of my girly assemblage with more of Les’ devil bunnies surveying the scene…my resin contribution this year is the little pumpkin in the basket. …..ah well…we can’t all be edgy.

Happy Halloween!

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This year I’ve put up not one, but TWO Halloween trees! Naturally, that gave me an excuse to make even more Halloween ornaments. I’ve been wanting to make paper rosettes for a while now, but have never had a reason to do so. You see, I’m a functional crafter. I craft when I need something, either to give away or for my own home. The rest of the time I’m pretty busy with work and home chores. Or I’m pretty lazy preferring to sit on the couch reading or crocheting.

But this year: Let’s make Paper rosettes!

The very first thing that I did in preparation for my ornaments was to purchase a score-board. I knew about them, but had not needed one before now. The thought of measuring 1/4″ spaces along 12″ strips of paper and then carefully accordion folding each one was too much. Then, to multiply the strips to about 20 ornaments…argh. Nope- not gonna do that.

I tossed on some shoes and ran right to the craft store. I found several different makes and sizes of score-boards. The large one was perfect because I knew that Les would use it for his paper creations- books, envelopes, etc. The board was a steal considering how much time it would save and that I had a 50 percent off coupon for that day.

The next step was to go online to see if there were any hints or tips on making small rosettes.

Wow! There sure were and they are so much easier to make than they were way back when I first learned about them. This step-by-step-blog post is incredibly easy to understand and follow if you need. For full instructions, click the photo to the right or click on the link below.

You will most likely want some printables for the centers of the rosettes, some ribbon and assorted glitters (optional of course, but oh so cool.)

After learning to make rosettes the easy way, I scoured the internet for free printable art to attach to my creations. This sheet was put together by me and is free for you to print if you like. the sheet pictured is of a small size for the web. But if you click on it, it will take you to a page with a full sized sheet.

The weird but adorable cats and pumpkins in the photo on the left are by Jack Teagle. I got them way back in 2011 or 12. This was the link, but I don’t know if he sells the prints anymore. I cannot find them on his blog today. You may have to contact him or resort to the regular clip art above or search the web of course.

Here they are! TADA! A bunch of cute little Halloween rosettes that can be used, not only for ornaments for your tree, but also for gift wrapping, assemblage and a ton of other crafts.

And- tada- here’s the tree. I wanted a black tree that looked kind of like a vintage feather tree. What I found was a green Christmas tree that I spray painted black. Turned out cute if I do say so myself.

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Making Halloween decorations for 2017

First of all, I have to give props to Polly’s Paper Studio. Her post on her peat pot birthday assemblage gave me the kick that I needed to get busy on my Halloween decor. I decided, as soon as I saw Polly’s post, that I wanted to make a Halloween pot.

For the first step in this project, as in all projects, I had to make a mess. I usually drag all kinds of supplies out to see if this will go or if that will go- you know the drill.

One of the things that I knew I wanted to use was a little pumpkin that I carved out of clay. A mold was made from the clay pumpkin and then cast in resin. You can see him in the bottom right corner of the pic above. He’s painted with a coat of acrylic craft paint.

Halloween ornaments

I had made a ton of Halloween rosettes for my Halloween tree, so I nabbed one of those to use in the pot as well.

My other self imposed constraint was to use only what I had on hand. A little metal pot started out as my base after I drilled holes into the side of the pot. I took three colors of pipe cleaners, twined them around each other, then fit the ends into the holes in the pot. Now I had a cute little handle.

Next, I cut a strip of scrapbook paper to length. I cut divets into the paper from the bottom up, leaving a connection point at the top of the strip- only about an eighth of an inch deep. The divets helped to overlap the paper in the forming of the pot shapes. If you will cut those, you will have no buckling as you try to shape the paper onto the pot.

Components of assemblage

A little shredded paper went into the pot as a filler. That was topped with tulle and ribbon glued in with a glue gun.

The stars were freehand cut out of glitter scrapbook paper.

The “Boo” banner is a scrap book embellishment from Recollections. The adhesive ribbon around the pot base and the banner are left-over supplies from a previous scrap book project. I used a glue gun to assemble everything and there you have it.

OH! I also lightly sanded my little pumpkin to give her an aged, vintage look. She got a body and a little paper dress with pom-pom for her outfit.

Halloween bucket nestled in with other Halloween decorations

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I just had to share one of my new favorite paper places on the web. If you love paper projects, you will LOVE Mel’s blog – Melstampz. She includes the smallest detail in her tutorials. The tutorials are easy to follow, with step-by step instructions, lots of photos and printable templates. There also a ton of free paper designs. I love the one with all of the ephemera styled papers. Mel’s tags are adorable as well.

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I found these adorable little wooden snowflakes at Target. they were only a dollar for a packet of six. I had them laying out on my coffee table because I used them to style my Cranberry Chutney photos. They were, coincidentally, right next to my plain cork coasters and cup of coffee. (Yep, still trying to break THAT bad habit!)Being the brilliant crafter that I am, I spotted the correlation right away. “Hey, what if I use them for ornaments?! ” Just kidding, the leap to coasters was a short one, but I think that you’ll agree. they are CUTE!All you need are little wooden laser cut ornaments, plain cork coasters and a hot glue gun. Now if you are going to use them as trivets and set something REALLY hot on them, like say, a hot pot of soup, then use a regular super strong glue like E6000.Happy Holidays!